


Third Time's A Charm

by thereyoflight



Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Awkward Crush, Best Friends, College, Costumes, Crushes, Established Relationship, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Growing Up, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, High School, Identity Reveal, Kissing, New York City, Not Canon Compliant, Party, Pre-Relationship, Secret Crush, Secret Identity, Three Years Later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-12 06:02:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21229610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thereyoflight/pseuds/thereyoflight
Summary: A three-part story chronicling three Halloween parties Peter & MJ attend at different stages of their relationship.





	1. The Party That Brought Us Together

**Author's Note:**

> For Gabriela, Katy, Fer, & Honor, who all contributed to this work in their own way ♡

MJ had no idea why she was at this party. She had made her own plans for Halloween night, months in the making. She’d lay in the warmth of her bedroom light with buttered popcorn and candy corn as she finished reading the whopping 648-page novel, _ Of Human Bondage. _ She would keep her door closed to make it clear she didn’t want to be interrupted from her reading, ignore the playful screams coming from rowdy teenagers, and do something she actually enjoyed. The plan was definitely not to go to a Halloween party, and yet, here she was, donned in a full Hermione Granger costume.

MJ had been hearing about the party for nearly the entire month of October from Betty Brant, who insisted MJ join her. She begged Betty to stop talking about the infuriating party, to which Betty agreed on one condition: attend the party in a costume she approved. This meant MJ couldn’t make an excuse as dressing up as herself for Halloween, which, she had to admit, she was planning to do. MJ groaned in annoyance, but agreed. 

MJ and Betty spent an entire week deciding on a costume. It would have been a lot easier for MJ to decide on something simple, but Betty kept turning down nearly every idea MJ thought of. Betty had her own suggestions but nothing MJ would want to do. It didn’t help that Betty had been texting someone the entire time they were deciding, typing away while her phone chimed every minute or so. 

MJ teased her by saying it was Ned, whom Betty had begun a close friendship with. Betty turned bright pink with embarrassment and denied it. Even so, Betty was making the party seem more serious than it was.

Finally, Betty approved MJ’s suggestion of Hermione Granger. Only after a text message, though, which MJ thought was either suspicious or something she was overthinking. 

MJ smoothed down her black, pleated skirt. She wasn’t dressed in a typical Hogwarts uniform, but it was something that would be recognized as one immediately. She wore a white button-up shirt with a Gryffindor tie underneath a fitted gray sweatshirt. Knee-high socks were pulled over legs, met with black flats on her feet. Hermione’s wand was tucked into the back of her skirt, and her hair was down in all of its wild glory, like Hermione’s would be.

MJ was searching the party for any excuse to bolt right out the door. Her agreement with Betty had been to go to the party. They had never agreed she had to stay for longer than five minutes. 

MJ couldn’t deny that Flash had done a brilliant job with the party decorations; the boy was annoying, for sure, but he certainly knew how to throw a party. The staircase was lined with fairy lights, the wall marked with bat stickers all the way up the staircase. The house was filled with neon lights of green, red, orange, and purple. Smoke billowed faintly at the ground, and MJ was sure there was a smoke machine tucked into a corner somewhere. Fake spiderwebs lined nearly every surface. The most impressive part to her was that the living room had all of the ABC’s painted on the wall in black paint above the couch, Christmas lights over each letter. _ Dedication, _ she thought.

And, suddenly, there it was, all the reason for MJ to run for the hills right then and there. Across the room from her, standing by the fireplace was her crush with a red cup in his hand. His smile was vibrant as he laughed, but for once, that wasn’t at all what caught her attention. What left her stunned as she took in his appearance was that Peter Parker was dressed as Ron Weasley.

_ You’ve got to be kidding me, _she thought. 

MJ turned, eyes already on the front door, when Peter’s voice rose from the crowd. “MJ!” 

She shut her eyes, mentally cursing Betty for finding a way to drag her to the party. MJ turned on her heel and faced Peter with a tight smile. He smiled at her from where he stood, but the smile was quickly replaced with awe as he took in her appearance. He seemed stunned, shocked by what he saw. Surely, it isn't everyday that someone just happened to wear something complimentary to you. 

MJ approached him and realized Ned was beside him, dressed in a Ghostbusters costume. “Hey, guys,” she greeted, holding her hands clasped together in front of her.

“Hey, MJ,” Ned said. 

“MJ,” Peter said with a nod, rather awkwardly.

MJ’s face flushed with embarrassment at his reaction. Of course it would be weird for him to see her dressed as Hermione while he was Ron. It was uncomfortable because it was weird, especially since he did not have a crush on her as far as she knew. It was a twisted coincidence, and she wanted to scream her fury at the universe. MJ wanted to escape the awkwardness she found herself trapped in. 

Peter was dressed simpler than she was yet still with effort. Up close, she could see the fake freckles across his cheeks. The only sure indication that he was dressed as Ron Weasley, however, was the the scarlet sweatshirt he wore, with a large _ R _ in the middle of it. It was a replica of the sweaters Ron’s mother, Molly, made him every year. 

“Have you seen Betty?” Ned asked, his eyes scanning over the crowd of costumed teenagers.

MJ shook her head. “No, but let me know when you find her.” _ So I can kill her for dragging me here and making me wear a Hermione Granger costume of all things, _ she finished in her mind.

“Ned has a crush on her,” Peter said.

“I do not!” Ned protested.

Peter smiled and mouthed, _ He totally does. _ MJ laughed, partly because it was funny and mostly because she believed it was true. For weeks, Betty and Ned had been spending a suspicious amount of time together. They laughed at each other’s jokes, talked about movies, and worked on assignments together. The most obvious thing they did was whisper or speak to each other and go completely silent when Peter and MJ arrived. Whenever MJ tried to question Betty about the spontaneous friendship they’d forged, Betty pretended to have no idea what she was talking about. 

Ned left Peter’s side to find Betty. “Here, MJ, let me get you a drink,” Peter offered, walking over to the refreshment table nearby. He took a plastic cup, poured fruit punch into it, and offered it to MJ. 

MJ’s heart fluttered at the simple gesture. “Thank you,” she said, taking the cup from his hand. 

Peter was looking at her with curious eyes. It left MJ wondering if she was wrong to assume he didn’t like her, but that’s what she always did. MJ had a habit of believing he didn’t have a crush on her and constantly second-guessing her judgement. It’s what annoyed her the most about herself; MJ could solve any math problem with a few practice questions, and she could figure out everything wrong with an incorrect sentence in barely five seconds. She could finish a test with ease in ten minutes, write an essay in eight, but MJ could not figure out if a boy felt the same about her.

Academics were different from boys, MJ knew. She couldn’t exactly figure them out like she did everything else, and yet, she always expected herself to. There was so much information in her head, and MJ still couldn’t figure out the mystery that was Peter Parker. 

An awkward silence came over them, and MJ, desperate to break it, said, “You know, on Halloween night in 1981, there was a murder of a student and photographer in the photographer’s Manhattan apartment? It’s not too far from here, and it’s still unsolved.”

Peter looked taken aback by the morbid information, and he blinked. “Oh.”

MJ laughed nervously. “Sorry…”

Peter shook his head with a smile, before laughing lightly. “No, it’s okay,” he said. “It’s just not what I expected you to say.”

Her eyes narrowed. “And what did you expect me to say?” she teased.

“Oh, uh…” Peter scratched the back of his head and glanced down at his feet. “I-I don’t know. Not that it’s a bad thing what you said or anything, but--”

“Peter,” MJ interrupted. “I’m messing with you.”

He seemed relieved. “Right, of course. Yeah, I, uhm, I knew that.”

MJ bit her lip to keep herself from laughing at how cute he was. God, she had it bad for the dork. Before she could say anything, Ned arrived with Betty.

Betty was wearing an Alice in Wonderland costume, complete with the white apron over the blue dress and black headband. “Hey, guys,” Betty greeted, “how are we doing here?”

MJ remembered what she wanted to say to her. “Betty, we need to talk.”

A playfulness twinkled in Betty’s eyes. “And I need to talk to you, too.”

“Well,” Ned said. “We both do. Apparently, the house is haunted.”

“_What?_” Peter and MJ asked in unison. 

Despite herself, chills ran down MJ’s spine. The topic of ghosts and hauntings freaked her out to no end, and even though Ned and Betty were probably messing with them, MJ found herself getting nervous at the information. 

“Yeah, Flash told us about all these weird things that have been happening recently,” Betty explained. 

“Yeah, and apparently, someone died here before he moved in. They were _ murdered _,” Ned said. “How crazy is that?”

“Flash’s room has the most activity, and we should go check it out,” Betty suggested, “in the _ dark _.”

“No way am I doing that!” MJ protested.

“Me either,” Peter said, fear in his eyes.

“What?” Ned mocked. “You’re scared?”

“We’re not scared!” MJ shot defensively.

“Okay, then prove it,” Betty said. “Meet us up there in five minutes.”

“Five minutes?” Peter asked.

Betty shrugged. “Gives you time to overthink it and back out like cowards.”

“See you,” Ned said, backing away alongside Betty before disappearing up the stairs.

MJ turned to Peter. “Are we actually going to do this?” 

Peter looked at her. “We aren’t cowards, are we?”

MJ looked at the staircase nervously but nodded in agreement. “Okay, let’s show them.”

MJ followed Peter up the stairs and onto the second floor of the house, which was just as packed as the first. They pushed past people to get to the bedroom Ned and Betty had referred to. They would have had no idea whose room it was had it not been for the red sign on the door that said _ FLASH’S ROOM: DO NOT ENTER _. Peter took hold of the doorknob and turned but the door didn’t budge. Locked.

MJ breathed out a sigh of relief. “So much for that.”

Suddenly, the locked door swung open to darkness. Peter and MJ jumped back in surprise, but an invisible force shoved them in. Peter yelped beside her as he was plunged into the darkness with her. She stumbled and fell to the ground as the door slammed shut. The lock clicked.

“MJ!” Peter yelled in the darkness. “You jinxed it!”

MJ could see Peter’s feet from where they stood against the light from the crack at the bottom of the door. Peter pounded on the door and attempted to get it open. In the darkness, MJ stood to her feet and put her hands out in front of her. Her hand met Peter’s bicep, and her cheeks burned as she accidentally grasped the muscle there. He only screamed. “It’s me, Peter! It’s me!” she yelled over his screams. 

“Oh, my gosh, MJ, don’t do that,” he said.

“Sorry,” she whispered. 

She looked around the dark room and fear started to seize her. She pushed away all the memories of dark rooms in all the horror movies she’d seen and especially the information Ned and Betty had given them. 

“I can’t get it open,” Peter whispered to her.

“Keep trying,” she said. “There has to be a switch around here somewhere.”

MJ’s hands found the wall and snaked over it, searching for a light switch. Hot breath fanned her ear and the hair on her neck stood up. She gasped, pulling away. “Peter!”

“What?” he asked. His voice was far from her, by the door.

“Did you just do that?”

“Do what?”

“Breathe on my ear!?”

“Breathe on your ear?!” Peter asked in disbelief. “No! I can’t even see you! I’m trying to get this damn door open!”

“Peter, something breathed on my ear!” 

“Well, it wasn’t me!”

“Then who was it?”

Peter was silent for a moment. “Are you saying we’re in a house full of people and a ghost is deciding to come out and play right now?”

“I don’t know!”

“Whatever! Find a switch.”

MJ kept searching. Eventually, her hand touched what definitely felt like a person. “Peter!” she screamed as she recoiled. 

“What?”

“There’s a person over there!”

“Stop messing with me, MJ! You’re freaking me out!”

“I’m serious!”

“Find the light switch!”

MJ came to the conclusion that no light switch would be so far from the doorway, so she worked her way back to Peter. Her arm grazed his briefly, but she prevented another screaming fit from him by warning him. Her hands felt over the opposite wall and landed over a light switch. “Got it!” she said, switching it up. 

Nothing.

“Are you going to turn it on?” Peter asked.

MJ’s heart dropped as she switched it off and on again, but they were still submerged in darkness. “I-I did.”

“Here, let me do it!” Peter said.

“As if that’s going to be any different!” MJ yelled.

Peter shushed her as he reached over. His cheek grazed her nose in the darkness, and she gasped in surprise. Peter’s hands came up to grasp her shoulders in his own surprise. In the darkness, MJ could just barely make out his features, but she could tell how painfully close their faces there. Her heart raced at how close they were. “Sorry,” he whispered, his breath mingling with her own.

Peter moved to stand beside her. MJ heard the switch flick up, but only darkness remained. “That doesn’t make any sense…” he said.

She could hear Peter’s breath was labored. 

“Why are you breathing so heavy?” she asked.

“I’m not,” Peter said.

But the breathing was unmistakable. Her heart dropped as she gaped into the darkness, suddenly fearful of what awaited them there. MJ and Peter screamed, and they both cornered themselves to the door. Peter was behind MJ and he clutched her arm fearfully, his nose grazing her shoulder as he peered over it into the darkness.

MJ smiled, despite her fear, and turned her head towards him. _ What a damsel. _

“Oh, uh, sorry,” Peter said, standing up straight and letting go of her arm.

“Try the door again,” she suggested.

Peter turned to the door once more and it opened with ease, letting light from the hallway into the darkness of the room. She was relieved to see the room bathed in some light, but she was appalled to find that they were alone. Peter raced to the closet and shoved it open to find it empty.

“Peter?”

“Yes?”

“Let’s get out of here.”

“Good idea,” Peter said, turning back to the door. 

They stepped out of the room slowly. They began to push past the people in the crowd when MJ took hold of Peter’s hand, leaning into him. “What the hell was that?” she asked. 

“Hell if I know,” Peter replied. 

“Hey! There you are!” MJ heard.

MJ turned to face Betty. MJ and Peter approached, hand in hand. They tore their hands away as if just realizing. 

Ned appeared behind her. “Oh, you found them. Where have you guys been?” Ned asked.

“Yeah, we’ve been looking for you!” Betty said.

“What do you mean? You told us to come up here and you weren’t here.” MJ’s eyes narrowed as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Do you have something to do with this?”

“Something to do with what?” Betty asked.

“With what just happened!” Peter exclaimed.

“What are you talking about?” Ned asked.

“Something weird is happening here!” Peter said.

Betty scoffed. “Like what?”

“We got shoved into a dark room and locked in! In the dark! MJ felt someone breathe on her ear, and she felt someone in there, and there was heavy breathing! When we found the light, there was no one in there.”

“Probably some teenagers hooking up,” Ned explained. “Nothing abnormal.”

“In an empty room?” MJ asked. “Come on!”

“Or in the closet?” Ned asked. “I don’t know.”

“We checked the closet,” Peter said.

“Okay, be honest, guys,” Betty said. “Did you take a brownie from a sketchy guy, or something?”

“No!” MJ yelled. She groaned in frustration and took Peter’s hand. “Okay, you clearly don’t believe us, so Peter and I are getting out of this clearly haunted house.”

Peter followed MJ downstairs, their footsteps faster than normal in their shared eagerness to get out of the house. He followed her to the back of the house and out into the warm New York City air. There were very few people in the backyard, and no one paid any mind to them as hey shut the sliding door behind them. 

The backyard was decorated just as much as the house was. There was fake tombstones standing in the grass, lined with fake spider-webs. All the trees in MJ’s sight was completely submerged in the fake webs, and carved pumpkins with candles inside stretched out in front of the trees. It was as atmospherically Halloween as it could get.

MJ caught sight of trees stretching out farther than the house, and she could see a trail lined in the distance. She nodded at it. “Want to take a walk?” she asked. 

“Sure,” Peter agreed. “Better than the haunted house.”

MJ smiled in agreement and began walking alongside Peter. She realized that she had spent the majority of the night with him, and she couldn’t believe it. Talking to him had seemed so difficult and daunting in the previous year, and all it took was a party and a scare to bring them together. It was funny how that worked.

“So…” MJ began as the distance between them and the house grew. 

“So…” Peter said. 

Her eyes scanned his sweater and fake freckles again. “I… uh… I like your costume,” she said, pointing briefly at it as he looked up at her.

“Oh, this,” Peter said, glancing down. “Yeah, I don’t know. May got it for me a while ago after I watched all the movies again.”

“The books are great too,” MJ noted. “Better, I would say.”

“Yeah… I know,” he said. “Ben used to read them to me.”

“Oh,” she said, and she shook her head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

Peter waved it off. “It’s fine.” 

_ Change the subject, _she thought frantically, not wanting to unintentionally upset him. “You’re not going to ask me about my costume?” she blurted out. 

Peter’s eyes roamed over it in question, leaving MJ breathless. His eyes met hers again. “What about it?”

MJ was dumbfounded. “I’m Hermione?” she questioned. “And you’re Ron? Isn’t that weird to you at all?”

Peter shook his head with a smile. “No, not at all. If anything, it’s pretty cool,” he said. He shrugged. “Just a coincidence.”

MJ smiled. “It was my idea, but Betty was all for it.”

Peter’s brows furrowed. “Really? Because the person that suggested I wear this was actually Ne—”

A branch snapped, and Peter and MJ stopped, dead. Her eyes scanned the darkness. Her hand found Peter's completely on instinct. Another branch snapped,closer to them, now to their right. A shadow moved in the darkness.

“Run!” Peter yelled, grabbing MJ’s hand tightly, and bolting the way they’d come. Peter ran fast, and MJ found it difficult to keep up with him. They ran into a small shed and Peter saw his chance. He opened the door and pulled MJ in with him. 

MJ thought it was probably the dumbest thing they could do because if someone, or rather _ something _, was after them, it surely would’ve seen them run into the shed. They were trapped because apparently Peter, like all white people in film, had no common sense. 

“Peter!” she whispered. “What are you doing? This is the stupidest place to hide!”

His hand came up to cover her mouth. “Shh!” Peter hissed, bringing a finger to his lips.

The shed was smaller than MJ anticipated. She found herself across from Peter, her back pressing back against shelves. She was out of breath, but she tried to be as quiet as she could as she caught her breath. Peter was looking at her with wide eyes.

“Okay,” Peter said, shutting his eyes and removing his hand from her mouth, “in case we die today, I just want you to know that I like you.”

The sentence took her by surprise. “You do?”

“Yes, which is why I totally didn’t mind that you were dressed as Hermione Granger because, yes, I totally want you to be my girlfriend--”

“What?”

“--and yes, you also look absolutely stunning in the costume, but the point is, MJ, I like you,” Peter said. “And you deserve to know that before we’re probably murdered--”

“Peter,” MJ said.

“--and we’ll be missing for the rest of the night until a search party happens and they find our bodies here--”

MJ pressed her lips to his, cutting off his sentence. She pulled away almost immediately, and she found surprise etched over his face. “And you like me too,” he said breathlessly. 

She nodded, a faint smile on her lips. “Yes.”

Peter’s eyes flickered down at her lips. “Can I kiss you properly now?” he whispered in the darkness. 

MJ had barely nodded when Peter cupped her cheeks with his hands and kissed her. He kissed her gently, a mix of care and inexperience in the way his lips moved against her own. MJ’s hands laid on his waist as he pressed closer into her. MJ pulled away suddenly at the silence, and Peter whined in protest. “You hear that? It’s--”

“Quiet,” Peter finished for her.

MJ heard laughing. She opened the door of the shed to see Ned and Betty. They were laughing, and MJ watched as they gave each other a high-five. “No way,” MJ said.

“We did it!” Betty said in excitement.

“Did what?” Peter asked, looking over MJ’s shoulder at them. 

“Scared you enough to get you to fear for your lives and confess your feelings to each other,” Ned explained.

“You did all of this?” MJ asked. Ned and Betty nodded happily. The pieces started to come together in her head. “Why?”

“Well, Ned and I got to talking a couple weeks ago,” Betty said, “and we both realized you and Peter liked each other but were too insufferable to admit it. We had an idea and we ran with it.”

Peter glanced down at MJ’s costume, then his own, before looking back at his friends. “So the costumes were planned?”

“Yes,” Ned said. “We knew it would get you flustered enough to bring some feelings to the surface.”

“And the room?” MJ asked.

“I pushed you guys in, locked the door from the outside, and Ned did the rest,” Betty said.

“Where did you hide?” Peter asked.

“Under the bed,” Ned said. “It was a tight squeeze, but it was worth it.”

“That doesn’t explain the light,” MJ noted.

“Oh, right,” Ned said. “We cut the light in the room from the control panel in the kitchen.”

“Control panel?” Peter asked.

“Behind the family picture frame? That’s where it is,” Betty said.

“And how did you manage to figure that out?” MJ asked.

Betty shrugged. “We have our ways.”

“And you followed us into the woods to scare us,” MJ said.

“Right again,” Betty said.

“So, the house was never really haunted,” Peter said.

“No,” Betty said. “We made that up.”

“You guys are awful,” MJ said.

“Are you mad about it though?” Ned asked.

MJ looked over at Peter, who was smiling at her. “No, not at all.”


	2. The Party That Tore Us Apart

For the second time, MJ had no idea why she was at this party. She somehow found herself at yet another Halloween party held at Flash’s house. She remembered the last time she attended a party at the same house just three years before. She had been a sophomore then with a terrible crush on Peter Parker; now, she was a freshman in college dating Peter Parker.

But nothing was like she thought it would be then.

Nearly immediately, MJ was faced with Peter Parker. He was dressed as Han Solo from Star Wars. He wore the white long-sleeved, v-neck shirt underneath a black vest with the famous navy pants that had red stripes down the outer leg. The pants were tucked into black boots that ended just below his knee. A brown holster belt was strapped over his black one, and a blaster was tucked into it on his leg.

Peter and MJ had been scouring the internet for months for ideas for Halloween couples costumes. They went through several ideas, all of which either he or she didn’t want to do. It would be their first Halloween wearing a couples costume since Peter had been busy with the Stark Internship the year before (or so he said), preventing him from attending the annual party, so they wanted the costumes they chose to be special.

_ Peter, MJ,and Ned were rebuilding the Lego Death Star after school in Peter’s bedroom. After a long day of running around campus to different classes and sitting in a college classroom for too many hours, they always did something they found relaxing. Or rather, something that would allow their minds to rest a little bit from the entirely new environment they found themselves in and all the new information that got crammed into their brains. Somehow on this particular day, in a surprising turn of events, it was rebuilding the Lego Death Star, which Peter and Ned took very seriously. _

_ So seriously that it felt like an honor for MJ to be included in the sacred event. _

_ Peter gasped abruptly and looked over at MJ. She knew she would never forget the look of pure joy he had on his face, his mouth agape in pleased shock. She laughed lightly at his expression. “What?” she asked, placing another Lego piece on the set. _

_ “Han and Leia,” Peter said. “The party -- let’s go as Han and Leia.” _

_ Although she had never seen the movies or taken much of an interest in them, MJ couldn’t say no to that face. “Anything for you, loser,” she said and pressed a kiss to his cheek. _

_ “Get a room,” Ned said, and MJ threw a lego piece at him. _

So there she was, dressed as Princess Leia. Her hair was pulled into two buns at the sides of her head. The white gown stretched down to her feet, two slits on the side to show off her long legs. A silver belt wrapped around her waist, and white boots were on her feet. She held a black blaster in her hands. 

The memory of Peter getting excited to wear the costume with her as Leia would’ve made her smile had it not been for everything that happened between them in the past month.

Peter smiled faintly at her, the state of their relationship shining through the expression. MJ mumbled a hello, giving him a quick peck to his lips. He sensed her irritation and turned his attention back to Ned, who was dressed in a Marty McFly costume from Back to the Future, as he regarded the couple with sympathetic eyes. She waved a hand at him, and he nodded at her. Betty appeared beside them, wearing a Jennifer Parker costume from Back to the Future, a red cup of what MJ assumed was alcohol in her hand.

MJ’s eyes narrowed in question, shifting between Ned’s costume and Betty’s. She didn’t know much about the popular movie trilogy, but she was sure Jennifer and Marty were a couple. Another thing MJ was sure about was that neither she nor Peter had secretly planned it behind their backs, which meant they had planned it themselves instead. She brushed off the thought, noting to ask Betty about it later.

Betty noticed her. “Wow!” she exclaimed, looking between Peter and MJ. “You guys nailed it. You look great.”

“Yeah,” MJ said nonchalantly, and she took the cup from Betty and chugged down the alcohol. She placed the cup back in Betty’s hand with a tight smile. Ned, Peter, and Betty were all staring at her in shock. She chuckled. “What?”

“MJ,” Peter said, concerned. “Are you okay?”

MJ scoffed. “I don’t know, Peter. You tell me.”

Peter’s face went cold, his eyes hard. “That’s bold of you,” he shot.

“Oh, you want to talk about bold?” MJ shot back.

“Can we not do this right now?” Betty interrupted. 

Peter and MJ stared at each other coldly, but dropped what other comments they had. They tried to enjoy themselves, but the tension between them was boiling. MJ was sure that all the feelings that had been brewing between them would blow up any second. 

MJ couldn’t believe how quickly things had changed in just one month. Her relationship with Peter for the last three years had been nothing short of a dream until it all went downhill. She knew their relationship was probably too good to be true, and that she probably should’ve expected something to be wrong. But, of course, she didn’t. She was young and in love. The last thing she wanted to think about was something being wrong with their relationship or with Peter, or rather, Peter hiding a big secret.

She discovered this in the worst way possible.

MJ had just bought their Halloween costumes at a costume shop downtown, and she was on her way back home. She took a shortcut down an alley when she was hit hard from behind. Everything went dark. The next thing she knew, she was in an abandoned warehouse, strapped to a chair and Spider-Man was saving her. Her vision was blurry and she was disoriented from the hit she’d taken to the head, but she saw that Spider-Man’s mask was off. He knew her name, and he was nearly crying and telling her everything was going to be okay. Her vision had cleared, and she realized Spider-Man was Peter Parker. 

She passed out again, and she woke up in a hospital, being treated for a concussion. Peter was there when she woke with a bouquet of Black Dahlias, her favorite flowers. For a moment, MJ had completely forgotten what she’d seen. Instead, she had been wondering how he had managed to get Black Dahlias because they were expensive. Just one glance at his guilt-ridden face brought it all back to her, and she told him to leave.

_ “MJ, please,” Peter said. “Just let me explain.” _

_ “How did this even happen?” _

_ “T-This guy I’ve been trying to catch. He followed me home one day, discovered who I was,” he explained. “So he went after you, but I caught him. It’s okay now--” _

_ “Nothing about this is okay!” MJ yelled. “How could you keep this from me?” _

_ “I-I don’t know.” _

_ “Just go.” Her eyes burned with tears. She felt betrayed, lied to. When he didn’t move, she yelled, “Get out!” _

Peter left the Black Dahlias in a vase and left without a word. MJ, in her anger and frustration, took the flowers and dumped them into the garbage can in her hospital room. She stared at the Black Dahlias in the garbage, memories of her and Peter’s relationship swirling in her mind. She couldn’t believe how she’d never made the connection before, and she was so angry that Peter had never told her the truth. The feelings coming up within her became so overwhelming that she screamed, loud. So loud that it hurt her throat. So loud that a nurse came running in to make sure she was okay. 

Suddenly, everything started to make sense. Peter’s constant disappearances had always been excused by the Stark Internship, which he never told her exactly what he did in it. She never imagined what could’ve been so important that he sometimes bailed on dates or school, but she brushed it off nonchalantly. In her mind, she thought the reason was that Peter feared the wrath of Tony Stark if he didn’t drop everything to go help in short notice. She had no idea that the Stark Internship was his excuse to be Spider-Man. 

Afterward, Peter had left her countless voicemails and messages, all of which she listened to before deleting. She avoided him, so much so that he showed up on the fire escape of her bedroom one night. He knocked on the window, and she shut the curtains. She had no idea what to tell him or what to do. She felt hurt and betrayed. She had trusted him, and he had lied to her the entire time they were together. 

Things just managed to somehow get worse from there, which MJ truly didn’t think was possible. The times they did see each other at school, or with Betty and Ned, they barely spoke, and yet, Peter would insist MJ allow him to walk her home or take the route he recommended. Peter became paranoid, terrified something would happen to her when he wasn’t there, and MJ would never hear the end of their one-sided conversations full of his warnings. It made her feel naive to hear it from him, as if he thought she didn’t know better, as if she couldn’t fend for herself. 

Along with this came the overwhelming reality of dating a superhero. Peter and MJ’s relationship was on the rocks, but even then, she could barely handle the truth of what he did, every day. She could no longer watch the fascinating videos of the masked hero because they made her sick to her stomach knowing it was Peter beneath the mask, risking his life. Every waking moment she spent without his presence (even though they barely spoke) was spent with crushing anxiety, worrying about where he was and who he could’ve been fighting now. She had no idea how to sit well with the truth of who he was.

Not only did MJ fear for Peter’s safety, but she rapidly grew to fear the safety of her friends, family, and herself. She would often find herself triple checking every locked window and door in her home, as well as making sure her alarm system was on at all times; when her parents asked about the sudden paranoia, she made the excuse that she had seen some awful stuff on the news lately and wanted to be safe. She would be on high alert in public, always scanning her surroundings and suspecting nearly every stranger that looked at her or her friends longer than two seconds to be a villain waiting to strike at the right time. MJ lost all sense of a normal existence with the fear that came with the sudden knowledge, and she felt as if she was constantly pulling herself up from the seams to keep herself from falling apart. 

Both Ned and Betty knew Peter was Spider-Man; Ned had known since nearly the beginning, and Betty found out when MJ confided in her. Both of them knew how Peter and MJ felt about the sides they were on, and they sympathized greatly with each side. Most of all, they believed that the situation could be fixed, that their relationship could be mended. 

MJ saw this in the ways Betty spoke to her when Ned and Peter weren’t around. Betty would try to shine some light on Peter’s side of things and why he acted the way he did, but MJ’s feelings and opinions didn’t budge. Betty tried her best to get her to talk to Peter again, but MJ never wanted to hear it. 

As far as she heard from Betty, Ned was doing the same thing on Peter’s side, all of which never worked. 

MJ knew where their relationship was going, but she couldn’t bring herself to face the truth of it. But they both knew they were nearing the end.

It was just a matter of where, when, and how.

At the party, MJ and Peter went their separate ways happily. It wasn’t until Ned asked her where he was later in the night that she joined him in trying to find him. She walked right into Flash’s bedroom, looking for Peter, and found him. He was in his Spider-Man suit with the bedroom window open, ready to jump out into the night. She closed the door behind her and locked it.

“Are you serious right now?” MJ asked. “You didn’t even lock the door.”

“It’s a Halloween party!” Peter defended.

Being faced with the suit that had created such a divide between them felt like a slap to her face to see it again. She hated it. She hated the suit and everything it had done to her and Peter’s relationship more than anything else in the world. 

Peter ripped off his mask as if sensing her thoughts. “MJ, not now.”

MJ didn’t want to have the conversation either, but she knew it was inevitable. Prolonging it would only hurt them even more when the time finally came. They might as well get it over with.

“No,” she demanded. “Now.”

“What is it that you want me to say?” he asked. 

“You lied to me, for one--”

“To protect you!”

“—and you’re so protective, it’s suffocating!”

“I just want to protect you!”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t choose this,” MJ said. “I didn’t choose this side of you, or just…” She gestured to his suit. “Any of this.”

“And you think I did?” Peter asked, his voice rising. “You think I woke up one morning and just _ decided _ to be Spider-Man?”

“That’s not what I’m saying,” MJ shot, “and you know it.”

“Okay, MJ,” Peter said, “so what are you saying?”

“I’m saying that you lied to me for three years, and you have no idea how that’s made me feel. I’m saying that I don’t want to always be scared all the time: for you, for me, for Ned, for Betty, for my family. I don’t want to be paranoid all the time, or always feel the need to look over my shoulder,” she said. “I’m saying that I didn’t choose this part of you. Do you know what it’s like for me to know you throw yourself in all of these situations, risk your life, almost die? I can’t take it! And don’t even get me started on getting kidnapped… I’m saying I chose Peter Parker, not Spider-Man.”

“Well, tough shit, MJ,” Peter said. “It’s me and Spider-Man, or it’s no one, so make your choice.” 

And there it was. The line of the end of their relationship had arrived. She stayed silent.

Peter nodded. “Well, maybe I should be with someone that actually wants me and everything that comes with that.”

The words stung, and MJ fought back tears. “Maybe you should.”

Peter’s eyes welled with tears as he looked at her, and the sight nearly broke her, but she knew her words were true. She didn’t think things could ever go back to the way things were before she found out the truth. She had been living a lie for three years, and although they had been the best three years she could have ever asked for, she couldn’t brush this off. It was far too heavy on her shoulders to be brushed off. She only hoped that whoever came after her would be told the truth, no matter what. 

Police sirens sounded in the distance. Peter turned his head at the sound, his jaw clenched. 

“Go,” MJ urged, her voice breaking. “But the second you jump out of that window, it’s over. This is over.”

MJ wasn’t saying it because she wanted him to choose between Spider-Man and her. She knew that wasn’t a fair thing to ask of him. Instead, she was saying it because she knew he would never be able to choose her over it, and quite frankly, she knew she couldn’t handle everything that came with him being a superhero. 

“MJ,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

“I am, too.”

With that, Peter Parker disappeared into the night, leaving MJ alone with her broken heart. 


	3. The Party That Mended Our Hearts

MJ, for once, knew why she was at this party. After four years of writing papers, studying all night, and being awake to the point of hallucination, MJ knew she deserved to let go, even if it was only for one night. She would worry about advancing her career again tomorrow, but as for today, MJ just wanted to have fun.

The thought process was short-lived. 

When fall came and Halloween approached, MJ couldn't help but think of Peter. It had been three years since they’d broken up, yet the wound left from the way things ended between them still felt raw. MJ worried she had made the wrong decision after they broke up, unable to find anyone to fill the Peter-sized hole left in her heart. Instead of reaching out to mend things, though, she buried these feelings deep inside.

Many nights MJ would pull out the frame she used to have on her nightdesk. She kept it in a drawer in her nightdesk, tucked away safely beneath heaps of paper and books. It was a picture of her and Peter, the first night they’d kissed, dressed up as Ron and Hermione. She would gaze into the picture, fingertips grazing over Peter’s smiling face as she wondered where he was and what he was thinking. 

Deep down, MJ hoped they would find their way back into each other’s lives, despite how upset she still was. 

In the first couple of months after the breakup, Betty and Ned desperately tried to get the two to talk to each other. Of course, it never worked. Looking back at it, MJ couldn’t help but feel sadness for Betty and Ned. They were best friends with MJ and Peter, and to lose the friendship they had between them felt like a personal loss. Once they broke up, nothing was ever the same again. It felt like something was missing, and someone always was, whether it was Peter or MJ. If one was present, the other was not. 

Eventually, Peter and MJ were at different schools, studying different things. Peter transferred to a different school in pursuit of his dream of becoming a scientist. MJ remained at the same school studying journalism, even snagging an internship at the Daily Bugle. They lived completely separate lives, which at one point in their lives, they had considered impossible.

Betty Brant welcomed MJ when she arrived, looking wary but confident in her Cher Horowitz costume. “Your costume looks incredible,” Betty said, taking a moment to regard it in its entirety.

MJ smirked. “Thanks,” she said. “I think high school MJ would be appalled.”

MJ was dressed as Princess Kida from Atlantis, one of her favorite Disney films. MJ looked like she had walked right out of the movie as the beloved princess with the blue two-piece top and skirt she wore. Her hair was pulled up, hidden beneath a white, choppy wig, like Kida’s hair. There was blue markings on the left side of her cheek, right underneath her eye. She wore a single golden, hoop earring on her right ear, a similar color to the arm cuff around her upper left arm. A wire hung around her neck that held a clear-blue crystal. Instead of bare feet, though, MJ had decided to go with shimmering gold flip flops. 

In high school, Betty had considered the costume, but MJ had turned it down almost immediately. Back then, MJ was far too shy to show so much skin, and either way, her parents would have never let their sixteen-year-old daughter walk out of the apartment in such a costume. Even though she hadn’t seen anything wrong with showing skin, she knew her parents did and she saved herself the lecture she would’ve heard had she somehow decided to wear the costume. In many ways, MJ was glad she saved the idea for another time. She knew that she would’ve been wildly uncomfortable had she decided to wear it then, and she was proud of herself to be able to wear it so confidently now, even after so many years. 

Betty smiled. “I think she’d be proud.”

“I think so, too,” MJ said.

“I have to go do something really quick,” Betty interrupted, “but there’s a whole dance floor and, you know, actual alcohol. Thank God we don’t have to sneak it around anymore. Just go, have some fun, make some friends. I’ll be back in a second.”

MJ nodded and disappeared into the crowd. Music played loudly from the speakers, and she could only imagine the annoyance setting into the neighbors at this time of night. She had barely made it on the dance floor when a boy approached her. 

MJ didn’t recognize him as anyone she knew, but from the way he stumbled as he walked told her enough about his state of sobriety. “Hey,” he said, his words slurred. 

MJ ignored him, but he laid a lazy hand on her bare waist.  _ Great,  _ she thought in annoyance. MJ recoiled back. “Sorry, not interested,” she said clearly. 

“Why not?” he whined, leaning in. She could feel his warmth blurring with her own, suffocating and too close. “Come on, you’re too pretty to be here all by yourself. Let me help you out with that.”

“Uh, I’ve got a boyfriend.”

The boy lifted his head and glanced around, before looking back down at MJ. “I don’t see no boyfriend.”

“Uhm, yeah, he’s right here!” MJ said. She turned, taking hold of the first man she saw. She took a fistful of the back of his shirt and pulled him back. He turned and MJ didn’t even look at him as she pressed her lips to his. He tensed underneath her, in surprise, and MJ understood why when she pulled away.

She had just kissed Peter Parker.

“MJ,” Peter breathed. 

MJ pulled away completely. She could see Peter’s appearance so much clearer, and her heart dropped as she realized he was dressed as Milo James Thatch.  _ Ned and Betty’s doing, _ she thought briefly. His face was framed with the signature rounded glasses Milo wore, and his hair was tousled to match. He wore a semi-loose army green tank top, a coffee-colored messenger bag draped across his torso. A brown belt was looped through his sand pants, and tan boots peeked through them. MJ couldn’t deny how much it suited him and how struck she was by his beauty. 

Standing so close to him and kissing him sent a wave of old memories and emotions crashing over her. A part of her told her the smart thing to do would be to turn away from him, to leave, but the other part of her didn’t care about what was the smart thing to do.

MJ thought she would be angry to see Peter again or that she would discover she hated him for what happened between them. MJ had been sure she would want to yell at the boy, maybe even fight him, but all that rushed through her was relief. 

MJ pressed her lips to Peter’s again, and he responded with matched intensity. She nearly sighed at the feeling of his lips on her own, and she forgot how much she missed knowing it was Peter kissing her. “MJ,” he breathed into her lips. “This is nice and all--”  _ Kiss _ . “--but we should talk.”

“Mhm, maybe,” MJ replied between kisses. She was dazed, intoxicated with the feeling of Peter’s lips on her own. His hands found her bare waist, pulling her against him, and she gasped against his mouth at the contact. She stumbled back as Peter moved forward, but she regained her balance and allowed him to lead her. As long as she was with him, she was sure he could take her to the moon and she wouldn’t mind. 

“I don’t really want to talk though,” Peter whispered, his voice ragged. MJ’s foot clumsily landed on a step on the staircase. 

“Me either,” she responded, and Peter kissed her harder. 

And before she knew it, they’re on the second floor of the house, stumbling into a room. MJ pushed the door closed with a hand, and she pulled Peter’s messenger bag off him. She tossed it to the ground and found his lips again. 

“God, I’ve missed you,” Peter said, moving again. MJ‘s legs hit the edge of the bed, and she crumpled backward, pulling him with her, letting the weight of his body push them both down onto the bed. “We should really talk--”

“Shut up, loser,” she interrupted, taking a fistful of his olive shirt and tugging him back down to kiss him. 

He smiled into her lips and MJ’s heart melted. Her hands slid underneath his shirt, roaming the warm skin of his back, and this time, it’s him gasping against her mouth in surprise. She used the opportunity to press her tongue into his mouth. MJ’s hand cupped the back of his neck, fingertips brushing against his soft curls, and her other hand remained pressed firmly against his back, his shirt bunched up to his midsection against it. Their kisses were hot, tangled, and full of buried yearning. His hands touched her thigh, her stomach, her shoulder, as if wanting to explore a once-familiar place that had grown foggy in his mind. His touch left goosebumps along her skin in their wake, and his movements paint him out to appear overwhelmed with what’s happening before him, overwhelmed and desperate for more. 

“Michelle,” he breathed. Hearing her name on his lips in such a tone after so long sent shivers down her spine. His lips traced the outline of her mouth, her jaw, her neck, each new sensation leaving her breathless and trembling beneath his touch.

It wasn’t as if she had never been with anyone after him, but nobody had ever been able to influence her the way Peter did. One glance, one touch, one kiss from him was all that it took to undo her entirely. 

It felt like they were kids again, lost in a fire of desire. Every movement seemed to mirror a memory, long ago, of first love and first times. She remembered the first time they allowed themselves to do this, to go even farther than this, to go the farthest they could. There had been such precision and care in his touch, along with pure nervousness, something she felt shining through him again before her. She remembered how sure she was of her love for him and how sure she was that she’d love him forever. She hadn’t been able to imagine a life without Peter in it then.

Tears welled in her eyes at the comfort of being in his arms again. His hands cupped her cheeks, felt the tears there, and kissed each one that slipped onto her cheeks. “I love you,” he breathed. “I love you. I’m sorry.”

The words slammed MJ back into reality, into what she’s doing and who she’s doing it with.  _ I’m sorry.  _ They were the last words she had ever heard him say to her that night, three years prior. And, suddenly, they’re moving too quickly, too fast.

They shouldn’t be kissing each other the way they are. His breath shouldn’t be hot on her neck, his body pressed against hers. She shouldn’t be shivering underneath his touch or tugging at his soft curls. They shouldn’t be so close.

And all the pain of their breakup returned, pulling her under.

“Peter, stop,” MJ said.

Peter’s body froze above her and he looked at her. “What? What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

MJ placed her hand on his shoulder and pushed him off of her. She scrambled to the edge of the bed, her back to him, and placed her head in her hands. “We shouldn’t have done this,” MJ said, squeezing her eyes shut. “This wasn’t a good idea.”

“MJ, what…?” Peter sounded breathless behind her, at a loss for words.

MJ stood to her feet and turned to face him. It took her a moment to find her words. “We… can’t do this,” she said. “We’re broken up. We’ve been broken up for a while for a reason.”

Peter stood up. “Okay, let’s talk about it.”

“I don’t want to talk about it!” she yelled, frustrated. 

Peter’s eyes are full of concern and pain. Her heart twisted painfully at the realization lying before them: this is going to end the way it did last time. He was going to lose her again, and she him, just as they had managed to find a middle ground. “Why not?” he asked. 

“Because I’m still in love with you!” MJ blurted out. 

Peter stared at her, and MJ realized what she said. There was no taking back those words, so she decided that this time, she wouldn’t leave anything unsaid. It was easy to let the words tumble out of her as they were all the things she was always too afraid to say. It was a locked box with overflowing items, unlocked and unhinged, spilling its contents everywhere until it could breathe. 

“And the second this ended, I knew it was a mistake!” MJ continued. “You want to know why, Peter? There is no one -- absolutely  _ no one  _ \-- that compares to you. And I never wanted to admit it because I didn’t want to be wrong about something. I’m so used to getting everything right in my life that I didn’t want to admit that I had made a mistake on the most important thing in my life with the most important person in my life. I didn’t want to admit that I made the biggest mistake when I left.”

“MJ…”

“No, let me finish… I was so inconsiderate, Peter. You lost so many people,” MJ said, her eyes burning at the memory of his parents and Ben, “and I was getting angry at you for trying to prevent you from losing me too. I didn’t even try to understand you.”

“Don’t do that,” Peter said softly. “Don’t act like what I did was okay, because it wasn’t. I lied to you when I shouldn’t have, and you had every reason to be angry. I mean, come on, MJ, you found out I was Spider-Man by being  _ kidnapped _ .”

“Yes, I get that, but the way I treated you for it?” MJ asked. “That wasn’t okay, either. I never wanted to see anyone’s side but my own, and that was selfish of me.” 

“But I lied…” Peter said. “And I was so overprotective, so controlling… I treated you like a child. Because I was afraid of losing you, yes, but that doesn’t excuse anything. I’m sorry for that.” 

“I’m sorry for running away instead of trying to understand where you were coming from,” MJ said. “It doesn’t help that I was only eighteen. I didn’t even know how to begin to handle you being Spider-Man. It was overwhelming as your girlfriend, and you’d been doing for nearly three years then. Not that that excuses anything.”

“I know,” Peter said. “It was just too much too fast.” 

MJ nodded. 

“I’m sorry for not giving you the appropriate space you needed,” he said. “And for lying. I hope you can forgive me for that.”

A smile tugged at her lips. “Of course.”

“And I hope you can agree with me when I say we should try this again,” Peter said. “Only if… you know, only if you’re okay with trying this again too, of course—“

The bedroom door opened and in came striding Betty and Ned. Alarmed, Peter and MJ looked to see who had walked into their private moment. Betty was holding a sheet of paper that Ned seemed to be peering into before, but the duo were staring at them with wide eyes. Betty’s face fell in amusement. “So much for our plan,” she joked. 

Ned didn’t seem fazed by Betty’s comment. “Wait, so are you guys… back together?”

Peter and MJ looked back at each other, and they smiled. “I don’t know,” Peter replied, his eyes on MJ. “What do you think, MJ?”

MJ’s brows furrowed, and she looked up in mock thought. “Hm, well, I mean,” she said, “third time’s a charm, right?”

Peter smiled. “Third time’s a charm,” he agreed. 

With that, MJ pressed her lips to Peter’s and it brought her back to the first time she’d done it just feet away, in a dark shed, at the first party. She thought back at how far they’d come since then, from the second party, to the third. And MJ felt that things after this party would go differently from the first two. She and Peter would get the life they dreamed of together, through whatever would come.


End file.
